‘The future is unwritten.’
~Joe Strummer
Hey! A little while ago I was skimming through Ocean, The World’s Last Wilderness Revealed, American Museum Of Natural History, and I found some interesting facts about sharks!
- A shark’s teeth are covered by very hard enamel, and are formidable weapons. Sharks have several rows of teeth lying flat behind the active ones, and these gradually move forward, individual teeth may be replaced as often as every 8-10 days! Also, a shark’s teeth are shaped to suit their diet; pointed teeth are usually made for holding, while serrated teeth slice chunks of their prey.
- Cartilaginous fishes (which is a group that includes sharks, rays, skates, and deep-water fish called chimaeras) have acute sense that help them to find prey even if it is distant or buried in sediment. Predatory sharks taste or smell tiny amounts of blood as water passes over highly sensitive membranes in their nostrils. Also, cartilaginous fishes have eyes similar to those of mammals, and most have acute vision. They have no eyelids, but some sharks have a transparent ‘nictitating membrane,’ which protects their eyes when attacking prey.
-The black spots on a shark’s snout, ampullae of lorenzini, are tiny electrical sense organs that help it to find prey even it complete darkness! Isn’t that awesome!
- Thousands of sharks are killed every year for their valuable fins, which are then dried up and made into shark-fin soup! The body of the shark is often discarded while the shark is still alive.
These are just a few of the many amazing facts about sharks, and I am definitely going to do some more research about our human impact on sharks and how we can help stop people from eating shark-fin soup!
All information about sharks from this post has come from the the book called Ocean, The World's Last Wilderness Revealed, American Museum Of Natural History.
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